43 General Works (Recommended Reading List on the Viet Nam War)
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This article is from the Vietnam FAQ, by Brian Ross, John R. Tegtmeier, Edwin E. Moise, Frank Vaughan, John Tegtmeier with numerous contributions by others.
43 General Works (Recommended Reading List on the Viet Nam War)
Baritz, Loren. Backfire : A History of How American Culture
Led Us Into Vietnam and Made Us Fight the Way We Did. New York:
Morrow, 1985.
Gelb, Leslie H. with Richard K. Betts. The Irony of Vietnam
: The System Worked. Washington: The Brookings Institution, 1979.
Gibson, James. The Perfect War : Technowar in Vietnam.
Boston: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1986; New York: Vintage, 1988.
Karnow, Stanley. Vietnam : A History. New York: Viking,
1983; revised edition, New York: Penguin USA, 1991.
*CORE* A massive history by a journalist written
as a companion to the PBS series (Vietnam : A Television History).
Much of the volume concentrates on the American involvement,
although there is a useful discussion of earlier history and the First
Indochina War. The work is generally unbiased, and reflects Karnow's
access to many of the major figures involved. The original edition
(1983) contains some errors which were corrected in the 1984 paperback
edition.
Kolko, Gabriel. Anatomy of a War : Vietnam, the United
States, and the Modern Historical Experience. New York: Pantheon, 1985;
reprint, New Press, 1994.
Pratt, John Clark, comp. Vietnam Voices : Perspectives on
the War Years, 1941-1982. New York: Penguin, 1984.
This is a highly recommended and somewhat usual
work. Pratt has collected everything from official documents to oral
history to fiction to wall graffiti in order to shed some light on
the cultural impact of the American involvement in the Vietnam War.
Sheehan, Neil. A Shining Bright Lie : John Paul Vann and
America in Vietnam. New York: Random House, 1988; Vintage, 1989.
*CORE* Major study of the US involvement in
Vietnam, traced through the actions of a man who became both one of the
most senior advisors and strategist and critics of the way the war
was waged, John Paul Vann. Sheehan was an Army journalist prior to the
war, and covered Vietnam first for UPI, then for the NY Times.
Westmoreland, General William. A Soldier Reports. New
York: Doubleday, 1976; reprint, New York: Da Capo Press, 1989.
Young, Marilyn B. The Vietnam Wars, 1945-1990. New York:
Harper Collins, 1991.
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